The bottom line is clear: Our vital interests in Afghanistan are limited and military victory is not the key to achieving them. On the contrary, waging a lengthy counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan may well do more to aid Taliban recruiting than to dismantle the group, help spread conflict further into Pakistan, unify radical groups that might otherwise be quarreling amongst themselves, threaten the long-term health of the U.S. economy, and prevent the U.S. government from turning its full attention to other pressing problems. -- Afghanistan Study Group

United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has over the
past two weeks evacuated four of its 13 provincial offices around the
country.

Highway One, a ring road connecting all of Afghanistan's main cities,
has long suffered repeated Taliban ambushes and roadblocks in southern
Afghanistan. Government officials generally avoid much of the route.

In many districts that are normally [probably meant "nominall" -- C] under government control, like Musa
Qala in Helmand Province and Charchino in Uruzgan Province, government
forces hold only the government buildings in the district center and are
under constant siege by the insurgents.

This contrasts with Gen. Campbell's recent testimony before Congress, in which he said specifically that Afghan forces hold Musa Qala and other districts that are not really under government control.

Noorullah, a resident of Ghazni City who left for Kandahar in the
morning, was stopped along with other passengers by the insurgents in
Shahbaz area. Hundreds of the guerrillas had gathered to intercept a large number
of vehicles on both side of roads, but there was no sign of the presence
of security forces in the locality, he claimed.

A resident of Andar district said: “We were going to Ghazni City but
the Taliban stopped us on our way. They told us to inform our relatives
in the city to leave because they wanted to attack the city.”

The Taliban commit atrocities -- as do Afghan government forces, to a lesser degree. But that is beside the point, we're talking about the U.S.

An attack by an AC-130 is not like an attack by a jet bomber, which drops bombs from high in the air which land in a general area. The AC-130 precisely hits what it targets. In this case, it hit the same building, quite precisely, in 5 separate attacks.

We do not know what the crew of the gunship thought the building was, or far more importantly what their commanders thought it was they had ordered the gunship to attack. However, the U.S. command possessed the information that it was a hospital, and it's hard to see what else they might have thought it was.

It is clear, from statements by Afghan government officials, that they requested the strike on the hospital because they knew, or believed, that senior Taliban personnel were there. (In fact they have bragged about it.) This may well be true, but if so, they were receiving treatment for their injuries, alongside civilians and Afghan government forces, and they were unarmed.